The majority of fresh fruit and vegetables on sale in Tesco will no longer have best before dates, in a bid to reduce food waste.

The supermarket giant is removing the best before dates to try to stop people from needlessly throwing food away.

Tesco hopes this will leave consumers to use common sense to influence their decisions on whether food should be chucked out, rather than the date.

(Image: Rui Vieira/PA Wire)

The move, which applies to own-brand lines including apples, potatoes, tomatoes, lemons and onions, comes after campaign groups warned best before dates were confusing shoppers and encouraging needless food waste.

Tesco said the policy change will apply to nearly 70 fruit and vegetable products “to help prevent perfectly edible food from being thrown away”, the MEN reports.

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Speaking on the decision, Mark Little, Tesco's head of food waste said: “We know some customers may be confused by the difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates on food and this can lead to perfectly edible items being thrown away before they need to be discarded.

“We have made this change to fruit and vegetable packaging as they are among the most wasted foods.

“Many customers have told us that they assess their fruit and vegetables by the look of the product rather than the ‘Best Before’ date code on the packaging.”